1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a nozzle for a liquid container which can securely prevent a liquid leak and a liquid dripping from a nozzle, and a liquid container provided with such a nozzle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been conventionally proposed a liquid container constructed such that a container body containing a liquid such as an eye-drop, a nose-drop or a contact-lens cleaning solution is pressed by fingers to cause the content liquid to drip from a discharging hole of a nozzle.
A known liquid container as above is normally comprised of three members: a container body 1, a nozzle 2 and a cap 3 as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. The nozzle 2 is mounted by hermetically bringing an outer circumferential surface 2b of a lower portion 2a of the nozzle 2 into contact with an inner circumferential surface 1b of a tubular neck portion 1a of the container body 1. The cap 3 is mounted by bringing an inner circumferential surface 3a of the cap 3 into contact with an outer circumferential surface 1c of the tubular neck portion 1a while an internal thread 3b formed in the inner circumferential surface 3a of the cap 3 is engaged with an external thread 1d formed on the outer circumferential surface 1c of the tubular neck portion 1a, and pressing an inner top surface 3c of the cap 3 against a top surface 2d of a discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2 to provide a hermetic sealing for the discharging hole 2c as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-156662.
This publication disclosed a liquid container of the so-called screw cap type. The cap 3 can be loosened and detached by being turned by 360° in reverse direction. A plurality of (at least three or more) ring-shaped fins 2e whose edges are elastically deformed to be hermetically brought into contact with the inner circumferential surface 1b of the tubular neck portion 1a upon inserting the lower portion 2a of the nozzle 2 into the tubular neck portion 1a are formed at specified intervals while being vertical spaced apart. By this elastic deformation of the ring-shaped fins 2e, the outer circumferential surface 2b of the lower portion 2a of the nozzle 2 and the inner circumferential surface 1b of the tubular neck portion 1a are attached to a higher degree and an occurrence of a crack in the tubular neck portion 1a due to dimensional errors of the tubular neck portion 1a and the nozzles 2 can be prevented.
Another known liquid container is, as shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B, constructed such that an outer circumferential surface 2b of a lower portion 2a of a nozzle 2 is hermetically brought into contact with an inner circumferential surface 1b of a tubular neck portion 1a of a container body 1 and a cap 3 is mounted by engaging a locking arm 3d on an inner circumferential surface 3a of the cap 3 with a locking projection 1e on an outer circumferential surface 1c of the tubular neck portion 1a while bringing the inner circumferential surface 3a of the cap 3 into contact with the outer circumferential surface 1c of the tubular neck portion 1a, and inserting a projection 3e on an inner top surface 3c of the cap 3 into a discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2 to hermetically seal the discharging hole 2c while forcibly widening it as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication NO. 10-329855.
This publication discloses a liquid container of the so-called twist cap type. Upon detaching the cap 3, the locking arm 3d and the locking projection 1e are disengaged by twisting the cap 3 by about 90°.
However, the former publication discloses the liquid container constructed such that the discharging hole 2c is hermetically sealed by pressing the inner top surface 3c of the cap 3 against the top surface 2d of the discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2, whereas the latter publication discloses the liquid container constructed such that the discharging hole 2c is hermetically sealed by inserting the projection 3e on the inner top surface 3c of the cap 3 into the discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2 while forcibly widening the discharging hole 2c. For example, there are problems that a sealing performance varies and a load exerted on the nozzle cracks the nozzle due to a variation in tightening torque in the case of the screw type cap of the former publication and due to a variation of assembling precision of parts such as the cap and the nozzle in the case of the twist type cap of the latter publication. There has been a demand for a nozzle structure which, regardless of the type of the cap, can securely prevent an occurrence of a liquid leak from the cap 3 and the discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2 and has a sealing performance which is not influenced by variations in assembling precision and torque.
With the liquid containers disclosed in the respective publications, a content liquid “a” can be caused to drip from the discharging hole 2c of the nozzle 2 by pressing the container body 1 by fingers with the nozzle 2 faced substantially right down as shown in FIG. 15A. However, if the nozzle 2 is, for example, inclined to face obliquely downward while being turned upside down as shown in FIG. 15B, the content liquid “a” leaks out to an upper portion 2f of the nozzle 2 from the discharging hole 2c. If the nozzle 2 is inclined to face obliquely upward in this state as shown in FIG. 15C, the content liquid “a” may not be easily caused to drip since it runs down from the upper portion 2f to the tubular neck portion 1a of the container body 1 or it cannot be formed well into drops. Therefore, there has been a demand for a nozzle constructed such that a liquid leak from the nozzle can be securely prevented and drops can be easily formed independently of a dripping angle.